From Bunkers to Palaces

Part 3 - Alone in the Woods

Kate opened her eyes to view another bunker chamber. This time, she lay, unbound, on a quilt that had been spread out on the crude concrete floor. She knew she was in a different kind of chamber from the one she had woken over a day ago. The walls were cracked and looked very old.

Light entered from an open doorway. The only objects to be seen outside were trees. Sunlight filtered intermittently  through the top branches...

"You're awake," a voice said the obvious. "Come with me. My name's Diana and I've been assigned to watch over you. 

Kate was slow to unfold herself from the 'recovery' position she'd been placed in. A dozen questions rose in her mind, but she felt weary, with memories only of the previous bunker and those things she had been told. My name is Kate and a man called Richard came to rescue me. She wanted to ask where he was, but somehow couldn't summon strength to talk. The best thing, she was free. Her hands and feet felt as though they belonged to her again. Memories of someone helping her take a drink and telling her to keep drinking came to her mind. It had been dark then...

Diana stepped over to help her stand before leading her to a downward concrete step-way, stepping in front of her, moving sideways, holding her hand to help her descend to lower levels. Kate kept one hand on the wall with the other in Diana's right hand. Down three floors of steep steps enclosed in concrete. The concrete felt hard and cold under her bare feet. She was breathless when they arrived at the bottom of the steps. 

Entering a room that was surprising brightly lit and furnished as a bed-chamber, Kate saw a set of clothes on the bed which seemed to take up most of the room. In the corner was a desk with a number of laptops on it and the wall was decked with over a dozen screens with changing images of a forest-like area, showing it in the brilliant colors of spring greens and yellows with prolific brown trunks. Some screens pictured small creeks and one of them, a waterfall with rocks either side of it and at the base of it. Moving water splashed off the rocks. It was as though the tree-tops danced as they were blown around in the strong wind.

Dianna helped Kate change her clothing, including her underwear. The cream-colored jeans were tight, but stretchy enough to fit her form. A light woollen sweater was the perfect garment for this unpredictable spring weather. Although the day was warm, clouds scudded across the sun due to a thirty-five knot wind that gusted off and on. 

A pair of sneakers were a little large, but Dianna laced them up tightly, saying, "These are the smallest we have here."

"There's food for you, Kate, just follow me, and, uh, I'll show you the bathroom..."

Stepping out into a corridor, they moved along it, passing several doorless chambers, all made of concrete. The next portal had a wooden door on it.

"In there," Diana said pushing the door inwards. "I'll wait here."

Surprisingly, the bathroom had grey marble lining the floors the walls and the ceiling.  A long bench with three basins were formed of the same marble. She longed to splash her face and neck with cold water. There were no taps and she felt around the base of the spout, wondering how to cause the water to flow. Passing her hand under the spout opening made it spurted out. It was cold and just what she wanted. There were doors in the bathroom, one with a stick-figured skirted female on it and the other with a plain stick figure. She felt unsure. Her memory wasn't working. It seemed all new to her. The rooms contained both showers and toilets. 

Having finished, she followed Diana to the end of the corridor and walked into a massive, oblong kitchen. Like the bathroom, the walls were made of marble. 

"Oscar, our cook," she said, indicating the man at a large bench, chopping meat and dropping it into a huge cauldron on a large flat metal plate, the top of an iron stove. A bowl of vegetables waited to be washed and prepared.